Volkswagen Polo, Vento replacements & Creta-rival planned for India

Volkswagen will launch 3 new cars in the Indian market starting from 2020. However, all these cars will be built by Skoda and not Volkswagen. The Volkswagen group is about to rejig operations in India, and as a part of that process, Skoda will take over Volkswagen’s Chakan factory near Pune. Skoda will handle the car building operations of both Skoda and Volkswagen brands from Chakan. The company will use a low-cost version of the MQB platform for the new range of cars, which will be sold under both Skoda and Volkswagen brands, possibly like the badge-engineering with Renault and Nissan.

The first new car from Volkswagen will be Hyundai Creta-challenging compact SUV. It’ll be a totally new vehicle in terms of styling and the platform it uses. Volkswagen knows that India loves SUVs and the a way to claim market share in the market is to have a sharply styled, powerful SUV offering. The Volkswagen compact SUV will be followed by two other cars, also on the same low-cost derivative of the MQB platform. One of these cars will replace the current Volkswagen Vento sedan and will have more expressive styling. The other car will be the replacement for the aging Volkswagen Polo, now a bit long-in-the-tooth, despite being excellent hatchbacks.

Volkswagen is currently stuck with rapidly aging cars and is launching refresh after refresh for the Polo, Vento, and Ameo, in an attempt to keep the models fresh. However, refreshes can do only so much for Volkswagen, which is the reason why the automaker is planning all-new models. All the new cars that Volkswagen launches in India will be ready to meet Bharat Stage 6 emission norms. This means much more low emission engines that will have turbochargers as standard, These cars will also be BVNSAP-ready, which means that they will pass the new safety norms that the Indian government has put together to ensure safer cars for buyers.

The only downer in all this? The expected launch date, sometime in 2020. Which means that for the next two and a half years, the group – and Volkswagen fans – will have to make do with refreshes of what we currently have. A good thing about that would be the drop in prices of excellent VW models in the Indian used car market.